DEVOLUTION, BABY — Calls for a regionalized immigration system in the UK

A parliamentary report from the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), led by Labour MP Chuka Umunna, suggests regions in the UK should be given greater control of their own immigration policies and not be subjected to the “one size fits all” policy that is currently implemented in the UK.

The report suggests new immigrants should be expected to learn English on arriving to the country, or be already capable in speaking the language.

In an interview Chuka Umunna suggested the government “devolve” immigration policy to the individual regions of the UK to allow them greater control of who arrives to the regions and how many immigrants are accepted based on each regions’s own needs. Umunna went on to say the UK has groups of people living “parallel lives” and that integration in its current form is not sufficient. He also acknowledged that “integration is a two-way street.”

The Scottish government welcomed the report’s suggestion of a devolution policy.

Last month The Casey Review from the Department for Communities and Local Government raised concerns that groups, specifically Muslims, were becoming increasingly segregated in British society. That report went as far to suggest that immigrants take an “integration oath.” The report was criticized by individuals representing Muslim groups as having unfairly signaled out the Muslim community.